Manufacturer smartphone of three euros: we do not receive a subsidy from the government

The Indian company Ringing Bell says it will not receive a subsidy for its smartphone, which it sells for just over three euros. Instead, the manufacturer says it can maintain the low price by only selling online and buying components on a large scale.

The rumors that Ringing Bell would sell its Freedom 251 with a subsidy stem not only from the low price of 251 rupees, but also because a minister attended the event where the company presented its first smartphone. However, Ringing Bell’s founder says the minister is “an old friend” who has provided “vision and guidelines” on the project, Indian site Gadgets360 reports.

Although Ringing Bell has briefly offered the phone for sale via the website, the device has not yet been developed. The company has distributed a prototype to the media and it turned out to be a variant of a device from the Indian manufacturer Adcom. In fact, the device has an Adcom logo on the front, but Ringing Bell has pasted something over it, BGR discovered. Although the device resembles the Adcom Ikon 4, the manufacturer denies having anything to do with Ringing Bell. While the Ikon 4 and Freedom 251 are very similar, there are some differences.

In addition, although the device has already been sold and Ringing Bell promises to deliver before the end of June, the device has not yet been approved for use on Indian networks. Getting that permission is expensive and it is obvious that the company first wanted to collect money through pre-orders to be able to do that.

There are now speculations on Reddit, among others, that it is a scam. Ringing Bell is holding onto the claim that it will deliver before the end of June.